I had Augie’s in Montreal, thought it was pretty good, peppery-er than pastrami. I remember more waiting 30 minutes for a freaking sandwitch at 2pm than I do the actual taste of the meat, but I’d only say try it. They do have something going on. ( But, their joint is not known for Poutine, in Montreal, because it’s a primarily-take-out sandwitch place ( they do sit down put it has tour busses. The locals all seems to get from the to-go window ).
I think the only thing that redeems poutine is good, squeaky cheese curds. And when it comes to that form - why not just freaking fry the cheese curds? That’s what they do in Minneapolis and it’s danged tasty drinking-food.
We went Saturday nite. The menu is not huge, but everything we ate was delicious. The meat was tender, not salty and not dry. It was not really pastrami, less spicy and not really corned beef. Something in between. The rye bread was fresh and as good as NY rye bread. The portions were big.
A friend got the augies chef salad which was also large, filled with cheese , turkey, and meat.
Everything tasted very fresh. The owner, a young guy, was there and walked around from table to table chattting with everyone and asking if everything was good. The fries were oily.
Not the kind of food you can eat everyday, but if you want th is kind of food, highly rrecommend it. Will definitely return.
Augie’s in Montreal? It sounds like you are talking about Schwartz’s.
Frying cheese curd is an abomination, suitable only for stale or inferior (Wisconsin) cheese curd, The ONLY way to eat cheese curd, IMHO is from hand with a beer at your side, preferably within 24 hours after it’s made.
SORRY. That’s what I get for typing things too soon after getting off a long-haul flight. Schwartz’s.
I like fresh curd unadulterated, I didn’t know that was an option. I haven’t seen it sold anywhere — it seems that you must use it to adorn fries or fry thing itself. Between the two, I stand by frying the thing itself, but I’m not a huge fan of chili-fries or animal-style fries or anything else. Fries is fries, except cali burritos.
Where do you get straight up curds in a restaurant setting? I wanna go!
You don’t. You visit your kinfolk in dairy country, drive to the local creamery on the day the curds are made, and start popping them into your mouth the minute you get back in the car.
Augie’s does have curds as a side dish, but they’re not like the descriptions and photos I’ve seen at other places. They didn’t squeak. They seemed to be just knife-cut chunks of a jack-like hard cheese.
Stopped in yesterday on the way home from at Tahoe. I’ve never had Montreal smoke meat before, (but have eaten many times my body weight in pastrami) so not sure what the ideal would be. I thought is was good, the meat had a texture that was a little more rubbery than good deli pastrami, but had a nice peppery flavor. The bread was a good rye - better than Katz’s but not as good as Langers. I thought the meat could have been piled a little higher for a $15 sandwich and wasn’t really full after eating it. The bowls of poutine looked big and I suppose you’d split one of those between two people to supplement. You can also buy it by the lb. and take it home. Cheese curds were in vacuum sealed bags in the deli counter.
Just seeing this thread today as I was about to post a new one. My sister and I visited on Saturday for lunch. We split the L’Original sandwich, which is 8 ounces of Augie’s Montreal smoked meat. All the smoked meat here is brisket (I didn’t know - thought maybe there were other types of meats, but no, it’s all brisket.) And it’s mighty fine brisket according to us, admittedly not experts. We opted for the fatty cut:
The meat was tender, not too salty, with a good amount of fat. The rye bread is good and the ratio of bread-to-meat was excellent, to us. We were stuffed after sharing the one sandwich. However, we did also have the “small” poutine…
I’ve had this dish only once before, actually in Montreal, and am neither a lover nor hater of it. However, i thought there was maybe too much gravy on Augie’s. There is a bigger portion for sharing, but we could barely make a dent in this. I took the rest home with reheating instructions. The owner himself came out to talk to us, told us that they triple fry the fries so that they should in theory re-crisp when reheating. However, these sat out for quite a few hours (like, 9) before the were reheated, and so there was no hope of them being re-crisped, and the curds were melty after nuking. But, when we first got the bowl, there was a bit of crunch to the fries, and the curds were definitely squeaky. He told us he gets them delivered fresh from a dairy once a week. He also took the time to show us on a whole brisket from the case where on a cow that cut would be, and how they slice it to ensure you don’t get a stringy, tough cut.
I had an belgian-style ale on tap, and we also took a slice of cheesecake home. Really good cheesecake, and I enjoyed my beer. They had a special of a cheesy pasta with smoked meat that looked extremely decadent. I’m game to try the burger too (ground beef/smoked meat), but I’m afraid a lot of this food will be too rich for me to eat more than a few bites. But we’re definitely going back, as we loved the brisket and found the owner most engaging and friendly.
i love that show too. i was almost on it, got interviewed at the studio, but they decided not to go with my restaurant at the time and then the restaurant closed (chef/owner moved back to Vietnam)! I was later actually on it as just a customer at a restaurant near my office.
